Although passengers in business class or first class pay significantly more for their tickets than those in economy class, accommodations during a flight leave a great deal to be desired. For example, the sleeping position of the seats is often not horizontal but are merely inclined. For reasons of space, such seats positioned behind each other and are arranged so as to overlap. For example, the foot end of one seat projects underneath the head end of the respective other seat, as described in DE 195 44 754 and shown in FIG. 25.
Further serious shortcomings relate to the lack of privacy for passengers. On long-distance flights passengers need to sleep for an extended period of time, and often do not want to wear outdoor clothing during that time. However, frequently, there is no opportunity for discretely changing clothes, even in a first-class cabin, as an effective visual barrier to adjacent seats does not exist.
In order to ensure a horizontal sleeping position in a space that is closed off for privacy, the industry proposes rest compartments, for example, shown in the magazine “Aviation Week” of Mar. 6, 2000, on page 40; May 17, 1999, on page 60; or Mar. 12, 2001, on page 42. However, the proposals presented therein are intended for the flight crew rather than for passengers. Furthermore, accommodating passengers in the case of the above-mentioned examples is questionable, because during certain flight phases such as, takeoff, landing or wind gusts, the cabin crew must be able to monitor, without any impediment, passengers' compliance with the requirement to fasten their seat belts. Such monitoring is, however, only possible if members of the cabin crew may easily see the seat of the respective passenger, although providing a certain degree of privacy, as well as a horizontal sleeping position, these solutions do not take into account the aspect of the passenger being safely restrained by the seat belt as described in DE 26 30 210 and DE 22 34 308. Also, these described solutions, due to the extremely confined nature of the proposed berth arrangements, are unlikely to be suitable for accommodating passengers.
Another solution is provided in the proposal presented on page 14 of the January/February edition of the journal “Aircraft Interiors”. In that article, in order to save space, compartments are arranged so as to be staggered in height. While in this way criteria such as, for example, a horizontal sleeping position and adequate privacy are met, there are however concerns relating to evacuation regulations. Furthermore, monitoring passengers' compliance with the regulation to have their seat belts fastened is difficult.
An article in “Der Spiegel”, June 2000, page 124, discloses a solution from British Airways. This arrangement provides a horizontal surface for sleeping; however, the partition panels or privacy screens that are arranged at half height do not even come close to providing a satisfactory level of privacy for passengers. The solution is further described in the patent specification, DE 195 44 754. Instead of an axis-parallel arrangement of the seats, for various reasons, seats are arranged somewhat obliquely such that the seat points somewhat towards the row of windows towards the outside. A similar arrangement with offset seats that are arranged obliquely is, for example, described in GB 733 081, except seats cannot be reclined to a flat sleeping surface. While DE 195 44 754 proposes ways to improve privacy, the proposed half-height partition panels or screens are inadequate.